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June 27, 2005

Travel without leaving the house

Google Sightseeing--whose motto is "Why bother seeing the world for real?"--allows those of us without the wherewithal or ability to take time off work to see the world. It's a frequently updated blog that highlights interesting satellite imagery using Google Maps satellite data. The site is very well designed and browsable by location, category, and through a map interface.

I believe most of the Google Maps satellite data comes from Google's acquisition of Keyhole last year. Now Google is almost ready to unveil the updated version of Keyhole, called Google Earth. The screenshot makes me very excited, as it looks capable of overlaying driving directions and has many other enhancements over the original Keyhole software. No word yet on whether it will be free or join the stable of Google's few pay offerings.

[Sergey] Brin demonstrated how in the new release, he could "fly"--in a virtual sense--through the Grand Canyon, a landmark he's never visited in person, and view the canyon's peaks and valleys.

"Now I don't have to go," he said.

There's currently a beta version of Google Earth available that you can play around with as well as the official Google Earth website.

If you'd like a completely free alternative there's NASA's World Wind software, the opensource equivalent to Keyhole and Google Earth. World Wind is setup to access some of NASA's scientific data, and users have been udpating it to show data of interest to many. World Wind is also useful for checking out global news in a novel new way--it allows the user to view alerts on the globe. Forest fires, flooding, and earthquakes can all be seen soon after they happen. The connected traveler could use this data to make updates to their route in realtime, avoiding delays or rushing in to document or help out in a disaster.

Finally, for a pictorial travelogue from a place that few travelers will ever go, see Elena's Kid of Speed website. She takes her Kawasaki Ninja through the ghost town of Chernobyl in the irradiated zone, Geiger counter and camera in hand. It is an amazing and sobering look at the aftereffects of a nuclear disaster:

I have ridden all my life and over the years I have owned several different motorbikes. I ended my search for a perfect bike with a big kawasaki ninja, that boasts a mature 147 horse power, some serious bark, is fast as a bullet and comfortable for a long trips.

I travel a lot and one of my favorite destinations leads North from Kiev, towards so called Chernobyl "dead zone", which is 130km from my home. Why my favorite? Because one can take long rides there on empty roads.

The people there all left and nature is blooming. There are beautiful woods and lakes.

In places where roads have not been travelled by trucks or army vehicles, they are in the same condition they were 20 years ago--except for an occasional blade of grass that discovered a crack to spring through. Time does not ruin roads, so they may stay this way until they can be opened to normal traffic again... a few centuries from now.

Posted by Beau Gunderson at June 27, 2005 11:22 AM

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» Google Earth: A Mini Review from Webby's World
Google Earth, which used to be called Keyhole, is now available freely. Naturally a commercial version is available. The plus version has GPS Device and spreadsheet data import and better resolution, while the pro version has all plus features, be... [Read More]

Tracked on June 28, 2005 11:18 AM

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